Chapter 46
The memories of a century ago dissolved like smoke, and the present returned to the Great Hall once more.
Yuki stood directly before Drake.
“...You’re really gonna do this again, you stubborn dumbass?”
Her voice shook despite the anger behind it.
“You seriously wanna put Ando through the same hell we went through?!”
She stepped toward him.
“If you make him cry, I swear I’ll never forgive you.”
Slowly, Drake lowered his enormous body and knelt upon the floor.
“...A century hath passed, and still I never begged forgiveness for my betrayal.”
His head remained bowed.
“And yet... I ask this of thee. Let me go.”
Yuki’s voice cracked.
“Even after a hundred years... we still couldn’t become your home...?”
Silence followed.
Drake slowly shook his head.
“The days I spent beside thee were the gentlest and happiest of my life... Yuki... thou wert every bit as kind as Irina.”
His voice faltered for but a moment before continuing.
“Andronicus spoke unto me. He said he wished to lend strength unto the future thou and the others seek to build.”
Quietly, Drake continued.
“...If he still chooseth to believe in thy future... then I would fain believe in it as well.”
“Like hell I’m letting you go!”
Yuki’s shout split the air.
“Outside. Now.”
Thunder crashed overhead.
“You don’t get to walk out on us again.”
Something grateful and unbearably sorrowful passed across Drake’s face.
Silently, he rose to his feet.
Step by step, he walked out onto the balcony overlooking the vast grazing fields carved into the cliffs below.
The cliffs below were high enough to kill any ordinary man.
Yuki did not hesitate.
She planted a foot upon the railing, ready to leap over—
“—Please. This is mine to settle.”
The voice came from behind them.
They turned.
Andronicus stood there.
He stepped forward and gave Yuki a brief, respectful bow.
His voice was calm, yet beneath it burned the unmistakable resolve of a knight who had already wagered his life upon his next step.
“He is a man who serves beneath my command—”
Then Andronicus lifted his eyes to Drake and smiled directly at him.
“—but before all else... he is my father.”
Yuki’s expression twisted.
For a moment, she looked ready to argue.
But no words came.
Grinding her teeth, she stepped aside.
Andronicus gave a small nod and walked forward until he stood before Drake.
Strangely, the moment he stepped before Drake, all fear left him.
“Father... brief though our time together was, I would not trade it for anything in this world.”
Something grateful and unbearably sorrowful passed across Drake’s face.
“...Nor would I, dear one.”
Then, in the next instant—
Drake’s body began to swell.
Bones groaned. Muscles tore and swelled beneath scales reborn in an instant as his form expanded into that of a dragon.
A roar thundered through the air.
Andronicus reacted instantly.
He seized the whistle at his neck and blew hard into it.
The whistle’s piercing cry tore across the skies of Imresnople.
“—All units, scramble! Dragon of Doom incoming!”
Andronicus kicked off the railing and hurled himself into open air without hesitation.
For one sharp instant, there was only weightlessness.
Then Kito’s talons seized his shoulders.
The young Raptor beat her sapphire wings violently, dragging him skyward in a brutal climb as wind screamed past them. Below, snow and ash spiraled across the mountainside while the Aerial Steedraptor Cavalry Battalion exploded into motion overhead.
A hundred Raptors swept through the storm clouds in tightening circles like hunting falcons closing in for the kill.
Far beneath them, the ground forces were already in position.
Massive Glacier Ballistae groaned as crews hauled them into firing angle. Resting in their launch frames were colossal spears of carved ice, each one large enough to skewer a fortress gate.
“—Glacier Ballistae, launch!”
The launch shook the mountainside.
Ice lances ripped into the sky with explosive force, leaving white contrails behind them as they screamed toward Drake.
Impact.
The frozen spears shattered against the Dragon of Doom in bursts of glittering frost.
But the strike itself had only been the beginning.
Killing cold erupted across Drake’s body.
Frost spread over ash-brown scales in jagged waves.
Drake answered with a low growl that shook the heavens themselves.
“Second wave—release!”
The sky erupted as the cavalry formation broke hard in opposite directions.
Hailburst bombs dropped from above in perfect synchronization.
The canisters burst apart before impact, detonating into storms of freezing mist and razor ice. Frost raced across the battlefield in an instant. Ground, stone, and shattered debris froze solid beneath Drake’s feet.
“Keep the pressure on! Don’t let him recover!”
Catapults roared next.
Barrels packed with freezing water arced overhead and burst apart midair, exploding into glittering rain. The droplets froze the instant they touched Drake’s scales, layering ice upon ice, slowing muscle and locking joints.
Even the air turned deadly.
Then the Dragon of Doom roared.
The sound split the frozen air like thunder.
One enormous claw slid backward across the ice.
Andronicus saw the opening instantly.
Steel rang free.
His greatsword came down into both hands.
“Kito—release!”
The Raptor let go.
Andronicus dropped.
Wind howled past him as the ground rocketed upward.
Below him, Drake opened his jaws wide enough to swallow a man whole, rows of monstrous fangs glistening beneath the storm.
Too slow.
Gravity became his final weapon.
Andronicus drove the greatsword down with both hands.
Drake’s fang shattered beneath the blow.
Fragments the size of daggers exploded through the air as the blade punched deeper, carving through scale and ripping across the dragon’s lower jaw in a spray of blood, shattered frost, and broken ivory.
The roar that followed sounded almost like a scream.
The shockwave rolled across the battlefield.
Drake’s colossal body reeled backward and crashed against the frozen earth hard enough to shake the mountain itself.
Andronicus landed in a low skid across the ice.
For one heartbeat, the battlefield froze.
Then, slowly, he rose to his feet and began walking toward the fallen Dragon of Doom through drifting frost and snow.
For a moment, it seemed as though mankind itself had struck the Dragon of Doom down.
Andronicus dropped to one knee and leaned close, resting his forehead lightly against Drake’s.
So softly that none but the dragon could hear, he whispered like a fading breath.
“...Please go.”
A faint smile touched his lips.
“And every now and then... sneak back to us, would you?”
His voice faltered just slightly.
“We’ll always be waiting for you.”
Drake’s eyes narrowed.
And for the briefest instant, it seemed that he, too, had smiled.
Forcing his battered body onward, the Dracotyrannus unfurled his colossal wings.
“All units! Brace for the wind!”
Andronicus’s command rang across the battlefield.
The beating of those colossal wings unleashed a violent gale across the highlands. Soldiers instinctively lowered themselves against the blast as ash and dust tore through the air.
The colossal body rose skyward and turned westward.
For a moment, the beast seemed to dissolve into the burning crimson sky itself—
and then, at last, vanished beyond the horizon.
And then—
“Brave soldiers of Imresia!”
Andronicus’s voice thundered beneath the blazing evening sky, carrying across the battlefield.
“Our steel shall never break!”
He raised his sword high overhead.
“And no Dragon of Doom shall ever bring Imresia to its knees!”
A roar of triumph exploded from the army.
Every soldier lifted their face in pride, their voices joining together in a thunderous cry of victory.
To every eye upon that battlefield, it looked like complete victory.
